February 26, 2013
Dear Members of Congress,
It is with
great concern over the effects of the sequester that I write to you today. These budget cuts will harm real people; they
are not an academic exercise and this is no laboratory for testing ideology
around the role of government. Indeed, a
recent
report by the Coalition on Human Needs shows that 600,000 children and
women stand to lose WIC nutrition assistance, 70,000 children may be denied
Head Start, and at a time when the need for better mental health care is
brought into stark relief by recent violent events, 373,000 people stand to
lose access to mental health treatment.
Arguments that the effects of the sequester will not be “that bad” fail
to account for the real lives of people who depend on the services that we have
committed to provide for the common good of all.
Please find
attached Faithful Alternatives to the Sequester,
a document offered last summer to Members of Congress by the Interreligious Working Group on
Domestic Human Needs. In particular,
we draw your attention to:
Crushing poverty in a world of
abundance is insufferable and our nation has allowed too much injustice and
greed to govern our current economic structures. Instead, we seek to increase equity and
equality in this nation. We are alarmed at the growing economic
divergence between rich and poor, creating permanent inequalities that are
neither just nor socially sustainable. Over the past thirty years, tax policy
has too often been used to perpetuate rather than address these inequalities…
It is from this place of concern for
the common good, right relationship, and the just working of the economy, that
we seek a balanced approach to deficit reduction. Sequestration was developed as a backstop – a
last resort if Congress failed to act in a more thoughtful and balanced
way. Whether Congress uses sequestration
or some alternative as a means of achieving deficit reduction, Congress can and
must act in a way that reflects our shared values. There are core challenges
facing our nation: rising income inequality, persistent unemployment,
historically high rates of poverty and anemic economic growth. These challenges
must be addressed with justice.
Therefore, we refuse to accept
additional spending cuts to programs that serve “the least of these,” and we
support extending the tax cuts for low and middle-income families. In particular, we support a strong, refundable
Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, as they are some of this
nation’s most effective tools for alleviating poverty.
Our
approach to upcoming sequestration needs to be rooted in our values – a
balanced approach that addresses the deficit crisis with justice and compassion. On the one hand, we need to be good stewards
of the resources we already have, making judicious cuts to defense, earmarks,
and other wasteful spending, while preserving that which is most important for
the good of all. On the other hand, we
must increase revenue, in order to ensure that this nation can meet our need to
operate a fair and just economy, which serves all of our human community. The
nation’s deficit crisis cannot be solved through spending cuts alone – new
revenues must be part of the solution. The
need is great and the resources are abundant.
The budget choices we make must reflect this reality.
Please feel
free to contact me at the contact information below, or my fellow Co-Chair,
Amelia Kegan, Policy Analyst at Bread for the Word, should you have any
questions.
With sincere
hopes for a just resolution to Sequestration,
Leslie Woods
Representative
for Domestic Poverty & Environmental Issues
Office of
Public Witness
Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)
Co-Chair
Interreligious
Working Group on Domestic Human Needs
